Feds offer guidance on school security
• U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge unveiled a new section on the Education Department's Web page with information to help school officials plan for any emergency, including terrorist acts, violent incidents, and natural disasters.
The site advises school districts on developing crisis plans, evacuating students and staff, controlling access to schools, communicating to parents, and developing a command structure for responding to a crisis.
Tax credits defeated in Utah -- again
• For the third time in three years, a tax credit bill died in the Utah legislature. The measure would have allowed parents of children in private schools to claim a $2,132 break on their state income taxes. It also would have given a tax break to businesses that donate to scholarship-granting organizations.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars (R-West Jordan), was passed by the Senate by a vote of 20-8. The bill's sponsors in the House withdrew it after they realized they couldn't get enough votes.
"We worked extremely hard on defeating this," says Steve Peterson, associate executive director of the Utah School Boards Association. He notes that Gov. Mike Leavitt had indirectly threatened to veto it, urging the legislature to focus instead on funding public education.
Screening urged to detect suicidal youths
• Columbia University is offering free, voluntary screening tools to 400 communities in an effort to reduce the risk of adolescent suicide.
Columbia researchers have developed the Positive Action for Teen Health (PATH) program, which advocates the use of confidential screening tools to detect whether teenagers are at risk for depression and suicide.
Youths who receive parental consent to participate in screening fill out a comprehensive mental health evaluation.
The results are reviewed by mental health professionals, who conduct face-to-face interviews with students at risk. Parents of these students are informed and advised of treatment options.
More than 800,000 U.S. teens suffer from depression each year, and more tan 500,000 make a suicide attempt requiring medical attention.
Paige opposes major changes to Title IX
• U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige has rejected the most controversial recommendations of the commission he had created to "strengthen and improve" Title IX.
He announced Feb. 26 that he will move forward on only those recommendations that were agreed to unanimously by the Secretary of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics.
Title IX, enacted in 1972, requires gender equality in sports at all schools receiving federal funding.
Women's advocacy groups had criticized the work of the commission, co-chaired by Stanford University Athletic Director Ted Leland and former professional basketball star Cynthia Cooper, for attempting to weaken Title IX, thus leading to diminished opportunities for girls and women.
Two members of the commission, Julie Foudy, captain of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, and Donna De Varona, a swimmer who had received two Olympic gold medals, refused to sign the commission report and instead released a dissenting report.
Among the 15 unanimous recommendations that Paige agreed to are proposals to clarify that cutting men's teams to demonstrate compliance is a "disfavored practice" and to develop enforceable sanctions other than cutting off all federal funding to a school that violates Title IX.
Among the eight non-unanimous recommendations Paige rejected were proposals to allow schools to exclude certain non-recruited "walk-on" players, most of whom are men, and allow schools to survey students to determine their interest in athletics, and thus determine the sports programs offered.
Strong high-school collaboration urged
• While more high school students than ever plan to go to college, too many are being set up to fail, according to a report released March 4.
Betraying the College Dream, by the Bridge Project at Stanford University in conjunction with the Institute for Educational Leadership, finds that K-12 and postsecondary education systems are fractured and create unnecessary barriers between high school and college.
According to the report, high school curricula are frequently disconnected from college coursework. Standardized tests in high school often stress different knowledge and skills than college entrance requirements and placement exams. Economically disadvantaged students and their parents are less likely to receive information about college preparation than their more well-off peers.
The report also says students receive conflicting messages about what they need to know to succeed in postsecondary education.
For example, many students erroneously believe it's better to take easier classes in high school and get good grades than to struggle with more rigorous courses and that getting into college is more difficult than completing a degree.